January 13, 2014

A luxury bath and beauty products company is cleaning up on customer loyalty and showering Sprint with praise.

New York City-based Sabon needed an innovative and dependable connectivity solution to track real-time customer interactions and buying trends. Infrastructure and connectivity were slow to return in the company’s 14 stores after Hurricane Sandy damage. Further, revenues were hampered by an antiquated point-of-sale customer database and employee downtime.

“We had to get beyond the way brick-and-mortar stores acquire and retain customers,” said Inna Uretsky, Sabon’s Ecommerce and Marketing Coordinator. “We also needed to move quickly with innovators and business partners who’d get to know our business and move fast to provide Sabon a new retail loyalty platform with a consistent M2M (machine-to-machine) wireless connectivity.”

In late 2012, Hezi Rotem, CEO of Sabon USA, began talking with AppCard about implementing AppCard’s loyalty platform. The process accelerated when Richard Delfino, an account manager with Sprint who is familiar with M2M technology, recommended powering the platform on Sprint’s 3G and 4G LTE wireless network.

AppCard connects users with their favorite stores to get personalized offers on their smartphones or the Web to earn rewards and digital receipts. The concept of a single ID loyalty solution available anytime, anywhere, increases customer loyalty “stickiness.” AppCard’s loyalty app makes offers easily accessible to customers and drives them into a merchant’s store repeatedly.

The more people shop at Sabon, the better the offers get and the higher the rewards via the AppCard. Recent sales figures prove the Sabon/AppCard/Sprint collaboration is winning.

“With AppCard powered by Sprint’s wireless network, Sabon has increased the average number of items per transaction by 20 percent over the past 9 months,” said Eran Harel, vice president, Business Development, AppCard.

“We strive to know our customers deeply and serve them the best health and beauty products for their needs,” said Rotem. “AppCard’s easy implementation, simple-to-use reports and analytics and personalized offers made it a natural choice for us. A fully rewarding program can’t have any downtime. I’m happy AppCard bundled with Sprint.”

Editor’s Note: Drop by booth #3465 at the National Retail Federation Big Show and talk to Sprint Media Relations Manager Randy Spolter about the Sprint/Sabon/AppCard partnership and other M2M solutions to make retail operations more efficient. The event is Jan. 13-14 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.